USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 28
USA > Iowa > Emmet County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 28
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
Howe, Wheelock and Parmenter selected the present site of the town of Spirit Lake, and made their claims adjoining. This they believed to be the proper place for the location of the county seat and the center of all business transactions. The men whose names have been known as the original proprietors of the site were: O. C. Howe, B. F. Parmenter, R. U. Wheelock and George E. Spencer. Dr. J. S. Prescott afterwards pur- chased one-fifth in the site for $1,000. The county seat was located here in 1858, James Hickey of Palo Alto County, C. C. Smeltzer of Clay County
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and S. W. Foreman of O'Brien County acting as commissioners for the location.
Many others came into the lake region during the spring and summer months of 1857. In June Henry Barkman, with a small party from New- ton, put in an appearance; on Independence Day a number of people from Sparta, Wisconsin, namely, Rosalvo Kingman, William Carsley, J. D. Haw- kins and G. W. Rogers, drove in and settled. Jareb Palmer was another early arrival. The latter had been in Springfield at the time of the Indian raid and had assisted in defense of Doctor Thomas' home there, also was a member of Major Williams' forces.
THE BUILDING OF THE FORT
Many times during these few months reports were brought into the settlement of another Indian outbreak and a threatening raid. At first the settlers became alarmed whenever these stories came in, but later learned to accept them stoically and await results-in the meantime, how- ever, preparing themselves for any eventualities. Alarmists were rife- one of the most conspicuous being "Bill" Granger, who, failing to intimi- date the settlers by his own bearing, started a report that the Indians were coming. This was his last straw and it failing to "break the camel's back" he and his party departed for the north again.
The first thing the settlers did in their preparedness campaign was to erect a general building, in dimensions about twenty-four by thirty feet, built of large logs, with puncheon floor and "shake" roof. Surrounding this house a stockade was erected, composed of logs ten feet in length and eight to ten inches in diameter, sunk in a trench sufficiently deep to give them a strong hold. For convenience in case of a siege by the Indians, a well was sunk inside the stockade. The row of logs surrounded the house at a varying distance of six to ten feet, making in all a compact, strong and easily defended fort. June and July, 1857, witnessed the erection of this stronghold. After two years service, with never an opportunity to test its strength against invading tribes, it was demolished and a hostelry, then known as the Lake View House, was erected nearby. It may be noted here that the town site then was about a half mile north of the present Spirit Lake city, having been chosen before the United States survey was made.
The largest number of the settlers had located their claims near Spirit Lake and a number of cabins could be seen in the vicinity of the fort. The reason for this is plain, for in case of sudden attack all could congregate within the stockade. W. B. Brown, C. F. Hill, William Lamont and a few others were at Center Grove, while Prescott and his party were at the old Gardner claim at Okoboji.
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SUBSEQUENT SETTLEMENTS
The year 1857, which brought the new influx of settlers to Dickin- son County, was the year of the great financial panic, caused in greater part by the fever of speculation in real estate which had gone on in the country during the previous two years. "Paper" towns were thick; rail- roads were projected, aid promised, and towns laid out on the proposed right of way. The value of property in the practically unknown West was inflated to a point where, like a toy bolloon, it was bound to burst. The ebb-tide grasped the country in its clutches immediately after the explosion; town sites vanished; land prices dropped to almost nothing; and settlers remained in their eastern homes rather than venture a trip to the West under the conditions. Paper currency was worth nearly nothing in value and the available gold in the nation was soon used up. This year saw the demise of many banks all over the land, their securities having depreciated to such an extent that continuance was impossible. The settlers then in the frontier and border country hesitated to make extensive improvements until something of a normal condition had again come to the country.
Emigration to Dickinson County in the fall of 1857 was slow; "in most cases made up of persons who had been stripped of their property by the panic and struck for the frontier to try their luck anew." Isaac Jones and William Miller from Story County, Iowa, came at this time and set up a diminutive steam saw-mill on the banks of East Okoboji Lake. It was located a short distance southwest of the Stevens' boat landing. This brought the possibility of timber construction to the set- tlers, whereas logs had been used for every detail of the house before. Algona had been the nearest point from which to get sawed lumber prior to this and the addition of the mill in their immediate vicinity was heartily welcomed.
There were just four women in the settlement during the winter of 1857-8. O. C. Howe had his wife and one child, Rosalvo Kingman had his wife and family, a settler named Thurston had his wife with him, and Mrs. Peters who lived between Okoboji and Spirit Lake, on the isthmus. Thurston stayed only during the winter.
Another mill was attempted by one James S. Peters in the fall of 1857, on the isthmus mentioned above. He dug a mill-race across the isthmus, but owing to the insufficiency of the water supply, made little success of his plan. He succeeded in getting the mill frame up and the crude machinery in place during the summer of 1858, and commenced operations in 1859, but the work he turned out was far from satisfactory. It is told that Peters was a superstitious fellow and believed in spirits
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and witches, ascribing the ill working of his mill to the wrath of the ghosts or whatever he happened to believe. Some person would fre- quently be blamed by him for bewitching his mill and then he would rudely sketch their head with chalk upon a tree and then spend hours shooting at the picture with silver bullets. In this way he hoped to break the "spell." After a year or two of vain effort he sold out to Stimpson & Davis of Emmet County, but they, too, failed to make a paying invest- ment out of the mill. The place was again sold to Oliver Compton in 1869; he overhauled it and put in new machinery, but the water situa- tion prevented success as before and it was finally wrecked.
In 1857 a claim was taken on the Little Sioux by Philip Risling, remembered as a pre-massacre settler. He came here in the summer with William Oldman, George Deitrick, Levi Daugherty, William Wise- garver and others, with coffins, for the purpose of disinterring the bodies of their friends. Very soon after Risling made his claim on the Little Sioux others were made in the same vicinity by Moses Miller, Andrew Oleson, Mr. Gunder and Omen Mattheson. H. Meeker and a Mr. Close constructed a mill on the outlet, which they ceased to operate a year or two later. R. R. Wilcox and Hiram Davis also took claims on the river mentioned before 1865. This small settlement is described as being on the trail from Sioux City and the first sign of civilization after a forty-mile hike across barren prairies. The winter of 1857-8 is remembered by the old settlers as having been a rather mild one, with provisions easily obtained by the forty or so of people living at the lakes. The cabins were comfortable and warm, if small and inconvenient. Some of them are said to have borne fanciful names such as St. Cloud, St. Charles and St. Bernard.
SPIRIT LAKE CLAIM CLUB
The formation of claim clubs, or associations for protection was a common procedure among early settlers everywhere, in almost every western state. In this manner each settler was guaranteed the protection of his fellows and some organized opposition could be exerted against the speculator and claim-jumper, a type, or types, not unfamiliar upon the border of civilization. Disputes and neighborhood quarrels were often decided by the august body of the claim club, as well as other matters of business.
The Dickinson County Claim Club, or Spirit Lake Claim Club, as it was sometimes called, was formed during the winter of 1857-8. This was before the government survey, when each man was entitled by the laws of the state of Iowa to defend possession of three hundred and twenty acres of ground. Under the claim club laws each settler was
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entitled to two claims, one in his own name and another in the name of some other person, with the provision that the person named would settle upon and improve it within a year. The club was under the com- mand of a captain and two lieutenants, who were empowered to call meet- ings. The first captain was William Carsley, and his lieutenants were Charles F. Hill and J. D. Hawkins. The local club had not much busi- ness to transact, consequently was abandoned shortly.
THE FIRST POSTOFFICE
The first postoffice in Dickinson County and in northwestern Iowa was established at Spirit Lake in February, 1858, R. U. Wheelock being the first postmaster to assume office. Prior to this time most of the set- tlers obtained their mail from Sioux City or Fort Dodge. Anyone travel- ing to and from these towns acted as mail-carrier and brought letters for the whole settlement, taking them there to mail as well. In 1856 there had been a mail route, semi-monthly from Mankato to Sioux City, becoming a regular route in 1857, and in charge of Mr. Babcock of Kasota, Minne- sota. He was paid for his labor the sum of $4,000 a year and received one section of government land for each twenty miles of route in the state of Minnesota.
A Mr. Pease of Jackson County, Minnesota, was subcontractor to Babcock; he handled the north route alone, but sublet the southern route, from Spirit Lake to Sioux City, to Jareb Palmer. In the summer of 1858 Orin Nason and Cephas Bedow of Kasota, Minnesota, procured the mail route and operated it until 1862. They acted as "official buyers" to many people along the line of their delivery, when the settlers were some distance from a store or had no means of transportation. Their purchases were made at Mankato and Sioux City.
Nason and Bedow established the first trail between Spirit Lake and Peterson, marking the route with bushes at first until a line was worn so as to be distinguishable. Snow at one time covered their route so deeply that Bedow could get only as far as the Norwegian settlement at the head of the south branch of the Watonwan. He solved the problem by engaging a Norwegian named Torson to carry the mail through on skiis. The snow was of just the right consistency for this style of travel- ing and the husky Norwegian made the trip from Spirit Lake to Sioux City and return in five days, an average of over fifty miles per day, carry- ing the heavy mail sack upon his shoulders. His trips continued until the snow had disappeared sufficiently for the continuance of the teams and wagon.
Wheelock left Dickinson County in 1861 and he was succeeded in Vol. 1-17
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office as postmaster by B. F. Parmenter, his brother-in-law. Parmenter also left the county about two years later.
The Okoboji postoffice was established one year after the one at Spirit Lake, with G. H. Bush as the first postmaster. He was followed by M. J. Smith and J. W. O'Farrell. Until the establishment of the Milford office in 1869 these two comprised the only postoffices in Dickinson County.
The mail from Mankato to Sioux City was continued until the year 1862. In 1859 a weekly mail was run between Spirit Lake and Algona, the contract being in the hands of Judge Asa C. Call of Algona, who sub- let the same to a man named Henderson residing also in Algona. These routes were discontinued in 1862 and a weekly run between Spirit Lake and Fort Dodge was opened. This was carried by John Gilbert.
EMIGRATION IN 1858
When the weather moderated and the season opened in 1858 there . was a renewal of emigration to the lake district. The country here was well known, many having been here to investigate. Some of these returned to Dickinson County for permanent settlement, some bringing their friends. Among the men who brought their families here at this time were: J. D. Howe, R. U. Wheelock, B. F. Parmenter, J. S. Prescott, Henry Schuneman, Henry Barkman, James Ball, Leonidas Congleton, Alvarado Kingman, William Barkman, George Ring, Philip Risling and M. J. Smith with his sister, Myra. With all these new arrivals oppor- tunity was supplied to the settlers for social intercourse-many young men and women having come in to live. Sarah and Mary Howe, Belle Wheelock, Myra Smith, Mary and Emma Congleton, Sarah McMillen and Dema Adams made up the list of the season's debutantes at Spirit Lake. M. J. Smith made a claim on what has been called Smith's Point; Dan Caldwell and T. S. Ruff located on what is Dixon's Beach and Jareb Palmer on upper Maple Grove, later known as Omaha Beach. Agricul- ture began to be the main subject with the settlers and farming began to be the popular occupation. Mr. R. A. Smith is authority for the statement that during this season the greatest hindrance to successful farming was the prodigious number of blackbirds in the vicinity. The destruction they caused was great. He writes in regard to this:
BLACKBIRDS
"Corn was the principal crop, as no machinery for handling small grain had been introduced into the country. The time when the black- birds were most destructive was when the grain was just coming out of the ground, or about the last week in May and the first two weeks in June. They would come in such clouds as to almost darken the sun, and lighting
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down on the mellow fields where the corn was just coming up, would destroy a large area in an incredibly short space of time. They have been known to destroy for one man an entire forty-acre field in one day. And one great difficulty about it was that there was no way of keeping them off. Scare them up in one place and they would immediately light down in another and keep right on with their work of destruction. Shoot- ing among them had no appreciable effect, but it was lots of fun for the boys and gave them good practice. Fred Gilbert, who has for so long held the world's championship trophy, first acquired his wonderful skill as a wing shot by shooting blackbirds in his father's corn field with an old muzzle-loader.
"Effigies and scarecrows placed in the field had no effect whatever. Various schemes and devices were tried to circumvent them, but with indifferent success. Some claimed that soaking the seed in copperas water or in tar so as to give it a bitter taste kept them off, but about the only remedy that had an appreciable effect, and one by which many farmers saved a portion of their crops, was to scatter corn on their fields every day for the birds to pick up. By this means, and a con- tinuous working of the corn until it was to large for them, a portion of the crop was saved for the time. But the farmer's tribulations were not by any means over when his corn was too large for them to pull or scratch up. Just when the kernel was forming, or when it was on 'roast- ing ears,' the birds were very destructive; nearly or quite as much so as in the spring. They would light on the ears, and stripping down the silks and husks, would destroy the grain on the ear in a very short time. Many a man who had neglected to watch his field for a few days was sur- prised on going to it to find only a few dried cobs. Some farmers saved a portion of their crops by erecting several high platforms in their fields and keeping their children on them yelling, screaming, ringing cow-bells and drumming on tin pans until they were completely worn out. The plan had one advantage, if no other; the children made all the noise they wanted to and nobody scolded them for it. The pest became so general that in the Eighth General Assembly Mr. Blackford of Algona succeeded in getting a bill through providing for paying a bounty on blackbirds, which remained in force about four years, when it was repealed. The pest died out gradually as the country settled. As the area of tillable land was gradually increased, the birds scattered until their depredations were no longer noticeable."
EMIGRATION OF 1858
Due in large part to the nature of the season, the emigration of the summer of 1858 was small. It was known as a wet season. Heavy
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spring rains swelled the streams and rivers out of their banks and the settlers, with their cumbersome wagons, "prairie schooners," and slow ox teams, found it difficult to ford the water-courses. Various expedients were tried, which are described later.
THE MILL CONTROVERSY
The year 1858 was the time of the noted mill controversy, between Messrs. Wheelock, Parmenter and Howe upon one side and Prescott upon the other. In 1857 the first three men purchased a steam mill and shipped to Iowa City, the terminal point of the railroad. The agreement was that an advance payment should be made before the mill could be shipped from Iowa City, but the financial panic of the year came on and they were unable to make this payment or pay the freight upon the mill. In the last extremity they turned the obligation over to Prescott, who payed the freight and assumed responsibility for the payments. He also entered into a written agreement with Howe and Wheelock, by which they were to retain an interest in the mill and in operating it. In the spring of 1858 arrangements were made to bring the mill to the lakes-the over- land route to be used. From the Rock Island depot at Iowa City to Spirit Lake was something over three hundred miles, two-thirds of which dis- tance the prairie was under water and the streams unbridged. A gov- ernment wagon was secured to haul the four-ton boiler and other wagons for the smaller parts, fully twenty yoke of oxen being employed to draw the wagons. Mr. Wheelock had charge of the caravan.
After six weeks hard journey the mill was landed in Dickinson County and located in the grove south of the Okoboji bridge. Here a controversy arose between Howe, Wheelock and Parmenter and Prescott as to the control of the mill. The quarrel was a bitter one and rapidly grew.
Prescott made the effort to hold the Okoboji Grove by staking it off as a town site and also the Gardner place under the pre-emption law. The mill had been set up in the north part of the Okoboji Grove. A log house, thirty by sixteen, and a blacksmith shop had been erected in the vicinity. During the forepart of that winter Prescott hired men to cut and haul over a thousand saw-logs into the mill-yard, to be sawed into lumber when the mill was started. His opposition claimed that he was violating his agreement and his contract by doing this, also that he was violating the town site law by his claim. In support of this John Gilbert filed a claim on it under the pre-emption law and began proceedings in the district court to obtain possession of the saw-logs which Prescott had hauled onto the property. C. F. Hill, the sheriff, refused to serve the writ of replevin obtained by Gilbert and consequently he was removed
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from office by the simple method of requiring more bonds from him and then refusing to accept any he produced.
On February 22, 1859, the newly appointed sheriff, with about ten men, came to Prescott's place to remove the logs. Prescott himself was in the East, but had left his business in charge of G. H. Bush and his employes. These men met the sheriff's party when they arrived and by rolling the logs off the wagons as fast as the latter loaded them prevented the timber from being hauled away that day. When the sheriff's party became weary of this comedy they left and in the evening came back with a warrant for the arrest of the men who had opposed the serving of the writ of replevin. With him was a small squad of soldiers from Captain Martin's company, which at that time was stationed at Spirit Lake. Everything looked ripe for a scrimmage and possibly bloodshed, when a courier arrived at the scene with the startling news that the Indians were in the grove at the head of Spirit Lake. The sheriff's party and the soldiers immediately left, taking with them a few of Prescott's leaders and the promise of the others to appear.
Mr. Bush then consulted an attorney, Judge Meservy of Fort Dodge and, acting upon the latter's counsel, obtained a counter writ of replevin. With this and an injunction procured later all further proceedings were stopped and everything quieted. Gilbert withdrew from the field.
Howe and Wheelock, however, stuck to their guns. They employed · every tactic to prevent the mill from running. First they sent men there to take away the pump-valves and other parts of the mill machinery, but Prescott's engineer, Mastellar, made new ones. Prescott himself secured an injunction against such acts. Undaunted, Howe and Wheelock again had their men visit the mill and take away more parts of the machinery which could not be replaced except from the factory. Prescott retaliated by obtaining a warrant for the arrest of those who violated the injunc- tion. He came here with an officer and posse from Webster County, but found that his men were missing, having taken refuge in Minnesota. They had been warned by a soldier belonging to Martin's command, who had overheard the plans in Fort Dodge. After a few days they returned, however, and appeared before Judge Congleton who issued a writ of habeas corpus and they were discharged. The first term of the district court soon after dissolved the injunction. Prescott had become unpopular, owing to his swinish methods of holding land, and many settlers left, among them G. H. Bush and C. F. Hill, who had previously championed Prescott's cause. Prescott then sold off his Tusculum claims for a song, but retained his hold on Okoboji Grove. The claims were purchased by Alfred Arthur and disposed of by him to H. D. Arthur, John Francis, John P. Gilbert, Crosby Warner, Peter Ladu and Charles Carpenter, who
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came from Wisconsin in 1859 and 1860; these men settled upon the land at once.
In the spring months of the year 1859 H. D. Arthur, John P. Gilbert and Spencer Humphrey built a shingle-mill at Spirit Lake. This was operated for a little over a year and then moved away.
FURTHER SETTLEMENTS
In the spring of 1861, also in the summer months, a large number of settlers came to Dickinson County from Winnebago County, Illinois. They were induced mainly through the efforts of J. S. Prescott, who had been sent there by the supervisors to dispose of swamp land deeds. Among the settlers who came were: Henry Meeker, Daniel Bennett, William Close, Samuel Phippen, J. W. O'Farrel, E. V. Osborn, James Evans, C. H. and Samuel Evans, John Brown, H. W. Davis, George Kellogg, and Samuel Rogers. Most all of these men had their families with them.
Then came the opening of the Civil War and as a result emigration practically ceased altogether. Also, when the possibilities of the struggle became more apparent the large number of eligible men from Dickinson County enlisted for service. Detailed history of the part Dickinson County played in the Rebellion may be found in the chapter on military affairs.
A PERIOD OF DEPRESSION
In 1863 there was little emigration, among the newcomers being Rev. Samuel Pillsbury and family, R. R. Wilcox, William Leggett and a few others. The Pillsburys and Wilcox are the only ones who stayed perman- ently. Many of the former settlers of Spirit Lake had left, owing to the nearness of the Indian troubles, among them B. F. Parmenter, Doctor Prescott, O. C. Howe, R. U. Wheelock, William Barkman, R. Kingman, A. D. Arthur, J. D. Howe, C. Carpenter, Leonidas Congleton and Philip Risling. More of this exodus is explained in the Spirit Lake chapter.
The emigration had not only lessened very materially, but those here before were leaving, so that the county in 1865 had very few more than two hundred people living within its boundaries, about as many as in 1856. The settlements were clustered in close proximity to the various groves and the prairie and government land avoided. Farming, stock raising and improvements were at a standstill, the panic of 1857 and the Indian troubles having completely disheartened the population.
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